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LIVE IN JAPAN
Written by Greger Rönnqvist

As the title says, this is a live album recorded in Japan in April 1998. Lana Lane is well known to the audience in Japan, but unfortunately not in the rest of the world. It's also released on the Japanese label Avalon. This live album doesn't have that much to offer though, as the tracks are almost the same as on the studio albums and the crowd is rather silent. But there's no doubt that every single song is excellent.

After the opening instrumental "Garden of the Moon", Lana Lane is entering the stage to begin "Coloured Life", that from the beginning reminds of The Beatles song "Across The Universe". Next up is two highlights from the album "Garden of the Moon" (1998), "Destination Roswell" and "Seasons". After the quite uninteresting "Love is an Illusion" comes the brilliant "Under the Olive Tree", which I'm considering to be the best Lana Lane track I've heard. "Moongarden" comes next and it's almost as brilliant. The next track "Through the Fire" is an acoustic performance with nice vocal arrangements. "Escher's Staircase" is another great song and it's followed by a power ballad called "Faerie Tale State of Mind", with a splendid vocal performance. Another great song, the symphonic rock epic "Symphony of Angels" is closing the show in a nice way. This track together with "Under the Olive Tree" are the highlights.

Lana is singing very clear with the same strength as on the studio albums, and the musical performance is as good as always. Eric Norlander are doing the main part of the keyboard work on a Hammond B3, together with synthesizers with great Mellotron and Moog samples. It's wonderful! Hammond, Mellotron and Moog should be a part of every progressive rock band. The main part of the musicians are from the progressive rock band Rocket Scientists. The music is a mix between hard rock, heavy metal and symphonic progressive rock, and bears reminiscences with Heart.

Once again there is a beautiful cover painted by the Polish artist Jacek Yerka. This one is called "Double Life".

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